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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoRenee C. Byer | Sacramento (Calif.) BeeDoug Lipp is a former Disney employee who now runs a consulting business and is the author of
Disney U. He shows some of the Disney memorabilia at his home in Fair Oaks, Calif.

“What would Walt do?”

For decades, that was the magic, pixie-dust question that permeated the Walt Disney empire of
animated cartoons, films, toys and theme parks.

As the creator and visionary behind the brand, he worked hard to ensure that Disneyland’s guests
felt ensconced in the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

But it didn’t happen at the touch of a fairy godmother’s wand. Behind the fantasy world, Disney
laid out a serious training program for ensuring upbeat, friendly, customer-focused employees who
could “create happiness” on the job.

That training program, launched in early 1955 as Disneyland was hiring for its Anaheim, Calif.,
opening, eventually became known as Disney University.

Today, it’s offered to Disney employees worldwide, as well as to outside companies through the
Disney Institute in Florida.

But that training is also spread by former Disney execs such as Doug Lipp, a Fair Oaks, Calif.,
business consultant. He travels the globe, from Denver to Dubai, conducting Disney-style leadership
and customer-service training for CEOs and employees of Fortune 500 firms, universities, hospitals
and other businesses.

In his new book,
Disney U, which came out in March, Lipp details how Disney University got its start and
the secrets to its success. Part memoir, part management bible, it’s based on interviews with 25
former Disney executives.

What’s made Disney’s management style so envied around the world?

“It’s a balance of head and heart. It’s a balance of rides that don’t break down and Snow White
never has a bad day,” said Lipp, 57, who works and writes from his home office.

While Walt Disney had exacting standards for everything from cleanliness to friendliness, there
was an underlying belief that if employees were happy, it would spill over to customers.

Lipp left Disney more than 20 years ago to go into private consulting. But his years at Disney
left an indelible imprint.

With more than 800 clients, he’s delivered the Disney message both locally and globally, from
Jackson Rancheria casino in the foothills to Coca-Cola in Peru. In a single week in March, he spoke
to 6,000 McDonald’s franchise owners in Las Vegas and 550 human-resource managers in Toronto.

He and his wife, Pam — they met as fellow “cast members” at Disneyland in the early 1980s — are
a Mickey-and-Minnie team, professionally and personally. They run G. Doug Lipp & Associates
from their home.

Fresh out of college and fluent in Japanese, Lipp was hired full time by Disney as an
interpreter for Japanese officials arriving in Anaheim to start planning the first international
Disney theme park in Tokyo. Eventually, Lipp spent two years in Tokyo, helping hire and train 4,000
Japanese employees. After returning stateside, he spent the next few years at Disney U in
Anaheim.

He went on to teach and then take a job with a semiconductor company before turning to
consulting.

In Lipp’s book, he details many of the initiatives that
Disney U embraces. Here’s a sample:

Walk the park

Disney, who died of lung cancer at age 65 in 1966, was known for strolling the grounds to talk
with employees. On one occasion, he showed up at the Fantasyland gondola ride, where an 18-year-old
ride operator was loading passengers. Disney had a single question: “How would you improve this
ride?” The startled worker answered candidly: The gondola rooftops were too low and guests
frequently hit their heads when trying to enter the hanging cars.

Based on that chat, the gondola ceiling height was changed, Lipp said, and the worker was
promoted.

Keep it human

Customers aren’t “attendance numbers” or “per-capita units.” Lipp says he makes the same point,
whether he’s talking with McDonald’s franchise owners or doctors’ groups. “We get so focused on
processing hamburgers or processing patients, we forget we’re dealing with humans. They’re not just
numbers on a spreadsheet.”

Every job matters

From the scuba diver who scrubs the underwater submarine rides at night to the custodian who
sweeps Main Street at 3 a.m., Disney believed everyone’s job was equally important.

At one point, Lipp recounts, executives became aware that workplace resentments were developing
among employees in different job categories. “The maintenance crews viewed the ride operators as ‘
button pushers’; the ride operators saw maintenance as ‘bolt-tighteners.’ They didn’t understand
each others’ jobs.”

That led to team-building activities, as well as job shadowing, where employees spend time on
shifts completely unrelated to their regular job. “It let you see the joys and frustrations in
every job.”